SY's Studio: Spring - Birthday Card and Gardens

Hello! Happy Spring to You!

I love Spring, don't you?. One of the other things that I like to do besides crafting is gardening. The past few years I have not been able to work too much out in my yard and my poor raised beds have been neglected. On Saturday my hubbie and I were able to get outside and refresh one of the beds so I could plant some vegies and flowers. Hope you don't mind if I share a bit about my garden.

Warning! Photo heavy post. Grab a cuppa, settle in and enjoy!

First, I'll show you a card I created for my sister's birthday. What does this have to do with Spring you ask? Well, Denise's birthday is March 21st so when I think Spring I always think of her. Happy Birthday big sis! Love ya!

I used the yummy Sweet Sentiments line from Graphic 45. One of the great things about Graphic 45 is that their designs are so versatile. Perfect for a Spring Birthday card, right?

The pocket on the front of this easel card holds a postcard stamped with the happy birthday sentiment. I used some Tim Holtz stamps to create a postage stamp and cancellation.

Easel cards make for a more 3 dimensional display but fold down flat for mailing.

Here are some close up detail shots:

Ok, on to the gardening portion of our program, ha ha ha. Just a few photos to share. Felt so great to be out digging in the dirt.

Here is my sad and neglected raised beds before we got to work.

First thing was to take the drip irrigation out, add some more dirt and mix it in. My hubbie, Chris is the best helper! He did most of the hard part and left me the fun stuff. Gotta love that man!

Check out that custom hat - ha, ha, ha! It took years of being on the bottom of the garden shed to get that swagger and curve in it.

Ahhhhh, all fresh and new again. Ready for some plants.

Instant garden! Went with seedlings to get a jump start on the season. I've got lettuce, spinach, chard, zucchini, snap peas, chives, and a little volunteer strawberry that came from a garden a few years ago.

And some chocolate mint that was threatening to take over the bed that got a new home in a pot to keep it contained. Mmmmmm, smells so good!

We ended up not refreshing the other raised bed. The bulbs have already come up and there are a couple of plants that need to be moved to other locations that aren't ready yet. For now the daylily, sedum (Autumn Joy), and lambs ear, along with various bulbs will be joined by some annual flowers.